Practice Recap from GBMW
This is one of the greatest posts I have ever read. Its from GBMW. Although Eroc and Maizeman can be very difficult to read at times, I thought this post was excellent. I had to copy/paste it for this board incase people have not read it.
I realize that this is EXTREMELY long, but I thought most people would enjoy it.
Courtesy of GBMW and poster GFord1973.
[ed: dude, you can't C&P whole articles]
April 12th, 2011 at 11:36 AM ^
Maybe for some, but IMO this site's most interesting feature is the UFR and other in-depth analysis. I think there could be a little more in that area right now. I'd like to see some analysis of what SDSU did last season, for instance.
and...Mike Cox will start at RB in the Fall. Book it. :-)
1. Big Will is finally going to be who we thought.
2. Coaching staff are true teachers of the game.
and the third and a little unnerving point.
3. Denard has a lot of work to do!! Thankfully it's only April. I will be watching for signs over the summer, no matter how crazy they might be, that Devin is a possible starter. I know everyone says Big 10 POY last year!!!, but that was under an offense meant for him and his mad running skills. I'm hoping he can develop the passing skills necessary to run this offense. No matter how much they coach him up, though, it's hard to teach accuracy. He has arm strength, but accuracy is almost a god-given talent that is hard to learn.
I truly hope he can make that transition, but maybe they should give Devin some reps at 1st string D to see what happens. If he still does as well as reported, than we may have a QB controversy (shoot me now).
IT IS ONE PRACTICE.
Holy shit.
You people KNOW Denard is good, right? You saw him, right? You watched last year, like me?
Who are you people?
April 12th, 2011 at 12:35 PM ^
We need to remember that right now Denard is being challenged to learn as much of the offense as possible. Alot of it is stuff he doesn't do all that well in. For the long-term trajectory of the program, it is important that this offense be installed. But buring the season, a game plan will be put together that emphasizes what Denard does best, both passing and running. So let's not all panic over this.
This has probably been said on this thread, but:
It seems that Gardner was more impressive than Denard on Saturday.
But it still mystifies me how the author of this post, and people on this board (several on this thread, Jamiemac's thread yesterday) seem to be predicting Robinson's demise. He was the top rated PASSER in the B10 last year. First-team all-conference. First team all-american. He's one of the hardest workers, the unquestioned leader, and universally beloved by his team. Virtually all of the practice chatter up until Saturday was VERY positive for him, and Borges has pretty much said that he's the guy.
Yet, 2.5 years of people trying to claim "he's not a quarterback" aside, people are STILL trying to get him out from behind center on this blog. In order to think that he's not our QB, you need to be stubborn or stupid. This was ONE practice on ONE day, with the other guy playing QB against our second team defense (our first team defense, you may recall, was the 3rd worst in NCAA football, so what does that say?).
We've SEEN Denard play the position at a high-level, and it's nearly border-line offensive that people are still predicting his failure.
way to fall...but it seems a short way back to last spring. The OP is taking this line straight from last spring substituting DG for TF. DR and DG will get opportunity - if only because that is CFB in 2011. QBs get knocked around. But to dismiss DR in spring is premature...and stupid (fancy dancer stupid). Not to mention the OP is pretty biased. Let's not lose sight of the fact DR came here over UCF to play QB. He could have been Percy in Florida if he wanted that.
As to the OPs hard on for Hoke. Just win baby. I'm encouraged by the buy in and the report in it's many specifics - but I will ignore the RR dirt and Hoke halo.
Bring on the recruits. Especially the defensive stars.
I don't know how much it is people PREDICTING his failure as it is people thinking its PLAUSIBLE that Gardner could pass him. Lest we forget, Gardner was a 5-star recruit, and a lot of his strengths are tailor made for a more pro-style offense. And if he does pass Denard on the depth chart, its because he's REALLY good. I don't see how thinking about that possibility is offensive.
April 12th, 2011 at 10:14 AM ^
It's just amusing to watch the latest Spring Practice rumors get annually swallowed by everyone.
Last I checked, "Cam Gordon, Brandon Herron, and Mike Cox: World Destroyers" never happened.
One set of data contains a record breaking season of Denard winning POY in the Big Ten--that everyone saw. But let's ignore all of that because of some rumors from spring practices that a few people none of us know have seen.
Not so much with the logical.
April 12th, 2011 at 12:54 PM ^
According to the B10 stats, Denard was sixth in passing yardage and seventh in passing efficiency. He was also sixth or seventh in TDs thrown.
He led in total offense, but a large part of that was rushing yardage.
This was the second best post ever... second only to my original "It's All about Denard" post. Thank you.. and its safe to say, that you think Gardner should start in the fall.
April 12th, 2011 at 10:13 AM ^
Holy excessive copy and paste. I wonder how much the Mods will decide to delete from the OP.
Didn't Maizeman and most of the GBMW guys get kicked off of Scout when they found out they had lied about being at practices for years? This wasn't from Maizeman and coincides with the coaches clinic so there is no reason to believe this dude wasn't actually at practice, but given the GBMW history, it wouldn't surprise me to find out this was yet another fabricated practice report.
Note - After reading through the comments over there, it is very clear that GFord is a Denard hater and Devin fanboy. That's all fine and good, but should be pointed out to those who typically overreact to any negative news about Denard.
April 12th, 2011 at 10:31 AM ^
I was concerned about his report after the first time I read it, considering a lot of it is opposite of other stuff we've heard. But after reading his comments, I've got to call his objectivity into question. He clearly thinks DR is not a QB and never should have been. But, then again, he could be absolutely correct. Only time will tell.
April 12th, 2011 at 10:09 AM ^
To say that was it was a long post is the understatement of the year. For the hell of it, I cut and pasted it into Microsoft Word using 12 pt. Arial with 1" margins all the way around. It came in at a whopping twenty-eight -- count 'em, 28 pages!!!! All I can say is wow.
April 12th, 2011 at 10:27 AM ^
I used to read these guys all the time until I figured out something. They don't know shit.
Ask youselves this. How credible is the info coming from a guy who thinks D. Molk may lose his job?
I think these guys hate D. Molk because 2 years ago they said he was too weak to play the position and would never play at Michigan.
3 years ago they said the practices we're much more intense and that the tempo was insane with more running and hitting compared to Lloyd's country club where everyone stood around.
The number one fallacy of these "observations" is they see a couple plays from a Spring Practice(which is used for teaching not determining depth charts) and projecting forward based on little. M. Robinson may look terrible because he is trying to learn something. If he has it down by August he will look totally different.
If you believe this stuff go have some fun and look at previous years entries if they stil exist and see how off some of these observations turned out to be.
April 12th, 2011 at 10:37 AM ^
I agree with Ziff? This can't be good, something must be wrong with the universe today.
April 12th, 2011 at 10:38 AM ^
I agree that there are red flags to question the objectivity of the person who wrote it. Also, to question the accuracy of some things. I'm not sure taking one piece of info and saying "this is wrong, so we have to throw out the whole post" is necessarily right either. I think thats like saying one poster had one post ever that was wrong so from now on everything he/she says is crap. I think some skepticism is good, but at the same time there is a lot of info in this post. Just have caution while reading and use it as one more piece of information to formulate an idea of what is actually going on.
April 12th, 2011 at 11:44 AM ^
This is just like pitchers in spring training, people always overreact to a pitcher that gets shelled in a spring training game.
What they never mention is that pitcher may be working on a cut fastball that he's never thrown before, and he threw it 12 times in a row to try and get it down.
Projecting depth charts from spring practice is ridiculous.
April 12th, 2011 at 10:58 AM ^
this is just one person's viewpoint after a couple of days. In addition, I offer this as it seemed fitting:
Michigan just let in all manner of heathens to observe a couple practices, ping various coaches for information, and take in a Saturday scrimmage; naturally, this has created a ton of internet chatter. Also naturally, large portions of it conflict with other portions of it. There's a faction of super insiders on Rivals declaring Denard Robinson to be a complete disaster and one focused here proclaiming him to be Pat White—except fast! Tate Forcier is either looking like a "walk-on" or the obvious starter, and Devin Gardner is either a total n00b or Vince Young—except fast!
April 13, 2010
http://mgoblog.com/content/coaches-clinic-tea-leaves-offense
April 12th, 2011 at 11:45 AM ^
Devin and Cox are locks to start...until such time when Denard and Shaw or Toussaint trot out onto the field to start game 1.
Oh yeah, and the compare and contrasts with RR had the feel of backhanded bitch slaps. Yeah, we get it, "15-22", "this isn't Michigan footbaw". Eh, I could've done without that.
April 12th, 2011 at 12:34 PM ^
biased or not, maybe they are, but they certainly know the game. There was a lot of technical football talk and observations that 90% of us here are fairly clueless about.
I certainly believe and hope Denard is the starter, but it is not out of the realm of possibilities that Devin passes him up due to this being a much better fit for him. Denard is a hard worker and is going to figure this out, but I think Devin has a couple things going for him. He's taller and that allows him to "see the field" better. He is also a more accurate passer. Accuracy is hard to teach but if anyone can do it, I think Denard can. If he does, watch out. But, is it not a nice situation to have an incredible back up? I'll take it.
April 12th, 2011 at 12:41 PM ^
Long time lurker but I figured its time for a first post here. Just an FYI that a large chunk of this is a word for word ripoff of some Rivals premium content from a few days ago. Wanted to give people a headsup on that in case some people decide to join this site based on this content.
April 12th, 2011 at 12:49 PM ^
Like I said before, it really would not surprise me if this was completely stolen from other sites and the guy was never at practice but was bored sitting at home this weekend. It wouldn't be the first time GBMWStaff was caught lying about being at practice, Mitch Albom style.
Since he's anonymous, it's impossible for us to verify how much of what he's written is actual observation and how much is not. The fact that you have to be "approved" by the anonymous people there before you can even begin to read their inside accounts strikes me as pretty odd for a free site. Does TomVH personally approve MGoBloggers before he lets them read his recruiting stuff?
Not only do they have to "approve" your account, but they used to ask for your Rivals, Scout, and MGoBlog usernames so they could check up on you. I'm not sure why anyone would actually provide that info but they ask for it.
Then set up a dummy account. Even post occasionally if you need to...and keep your real accounts hidden.
which seems to be what the author is suggesting. Can you imagine Denard trying to pass block? A Percy Harvin-type player who's a slot receiver who runs a lot of reverses, etc., is a reasonable option. But I don't think Denard has all the tools to be a full time RB. Honestly, he's not even close.
As a QB this year I think he'll be fine. Much has already been mentioned about the bias in the article, so I'm not going to beat a dead horse. However, it would not surprise me if Devin were to play as much as Denard by the time we reach teh end of the season.
Maybe the light bulb will go off and Al Borges will move Denard to slot?
IMHE No sugarcoat; Just e-pinion
This was helpful, I guess, but after a while it took on the usual revisionist history crap you see when a transition occurs. Everything the old guy did was wrong, everything the new guy does is better. The old guy didn't care/wasn't passionate enough/was an idiot, and the new guy is the new gold standard who "gets it." RR had his flaws, but I HATE people who say he didn't "respect" UM or that somehow UM is a different beast than most elite college football programs. I love UM to the marrow of my bones, but it is still a school that is trying to produce winners, and RR got that. This just reads like a typical bandwagon jumper who doesn't realize you can like the new guy and still think the old guy wasn't horrible.
I think it would be a massive upset if Denard lost his starting position, and Molk will have to be shot and dumped in the middle of North Dakota before he misses a game at C.
I felt like a parent being told my child isn't perfect (I imagine if I had a child). I felt defensive, before I finally had to concede that maybe MAYBE my child could work on some things.
I do believe DG could be special. The way they talk about him is impressive and reminds me of Brady in the pocket. My freshman year was the Henson/ Brady debate. I liked Brady better because Henson would spook out of the pocket as soon as his first read was gone since he was the (very relative) athletic quarterback, while Brady (probably out of necessity since he was a slow as I can remember) had a knack for making little movements to avoid the rush and find the open reciever. The fact that Devin does this with his speed is a testament to his skill.
Either way, I'd take either of them as my QB over anyone else in the B10. (Bias fully admitted)
the talent... but misses the fact that the best player we have returning is basically getting the rug pulled out from under his feet by Borges. Maybe the best DR can do in this offense is lineup at RB. I wouldn't bet against him accomplishing some wizardry regardless of position given his talent and attitude. A failure for DR to start or succeed in 2011 is not going to fall at the feet of the 2010 B1G Player of the year however. That failure will be be Borges' alone. The cupboard is not bare.
As the French say, "ne panic pas." Borges is not a dope. I doubt he will use him as effectively as RR would have (not because RR is smarter, but because the offensive philosophies are somewhat different), but Borges will not try to make Denard into John Navarre.
I spent the majority of my free time at work today reading this post and then the comments. It was exhausting to wade through so much bias to find the small amounts of information that were trustworthy and useful.
I went to the coaches clinic last year and really enjoyed it but did not attend this year. I wanted to know what the scrimmage was like and how everybody looked. While some of the posters thought it was in bad taste to compare what has went on in the practices under RR, it does shed some light on the atmosphere of the program and the direction of the team now as oppossed to then. Some of his assessments were unfair, almost implying that the team was not having fun last year....I don't think that was accurate. It was not fun losing and never will be....but the first part of the season was dream like until we all woke up. In judging the development of the QB situation he has planted in my mind that Denard will have a very short rope this season and maybe many of us had that in the back of our minds but dare not mention it aloud. It almost seems like the feeling when you hear bad news from the doctor but appreciate his honesty so you know how to deal with it when the symptons really start manifesting itself.
I didn't appreciate the cheap shot he took at Gallon.
First off- Thank you so much for the in depth coverage of what you witnessed! That is so awesome in these dark days of non-sporting events.
RE: Denard/Devin.
The thing I would say is this: I think the coaches see exactly what you're seeing right now, and this is a critical time for learning. Borges seems dedicated to teaching the fundamentals that will be necessary for these QB's to succeed in his ideal scheme and at the next level. Whether the actual playcalling will reflect that next fall remains to be seen. These coaches seem to have incredible experience and knowledge. They aren't going to put these players in a position to fail. If Denard can't throw deep and to the outside with accuracy, I don't expect the final gameplans for next fall to ask him to do much of that. There are throws, I'm sure, that Denard has no problems with, even in the new scheme, and we will see more of those throws.
I guess my point is this: If the new staff were determined to run an offense based on a solid pocket presence and ability to throw a more accurate deep ball to the outside (just a few examples of what you were talking about... certainly not the end all-be all), they would be looking harder at Devin as 'the guy'. I don't think they are going to shove their ideal system down the throat of Denard when it comes time to play in September.
Because of the above hypothesis, I disagree that they should convert Denard to RB... at least for now. We're talking about a guy who threw for 2500 yards last year, not a guy who barely threw the ball at all. There's a Quarterback in Denard Robinson, and while he may be raw in terms of the traditional skillset required to run a pro/west coast offense, give the staff some time to work him up. In the meantime, bet the house that they will tailor some things to his strengths both in the run and pass games. Devin might be more immediately appealing, but at the moment, Denard's earned every right to be 'the guy' at QB.
April 12th, 2011 at 10:14 PM ^
Wow ... Some of you need to relax ... this was based off one report/practice. We have had a lot of other reports on practices.
First off ... For those people that believe we stole this information from others ... think again ... actually it was our group who gave the information to rivals -- Anison -- to post on their board and also to SteveDeace -- on scout.
Second ... We still attend practices ... if you don't want to believe it -- fine -- doesn't bother me.
Third ... What is funny is people believe Tom Beaver attends practices and he hasn't been to one EVER that wasn't open to the media or the fans.
Take a look at the past couple of weeks of practice reports and then look at other sites -- you will see something interesting -- they read our stuff and post afterwards.
One last thing ... What is funny ... The people making these claims sure do come to our board enough.
Thank You for your time.
April 12th, 2011 at 10:23 PM ^
I think a lot of the people are ripping on this article because of the numerous jabs taken at the old coaching staff and how they didn't "get it" in one way or another. I thought it was frankly a little gratuitous at times, but I held my tongue until I read this comment. Your blog needs better writing and less anti-RR polemic.
Also, learning to write in complete sentences...you know, without ellipses gluing the clauses together...is kind of standard written English...and it makes you look foolish...when you write...like this...I'm just...saying.
April 12th, 2011 at 10:37 PM ^
Will keep that in mind. We will take your application anytime.
One last point --- the article that was copied and pasted here from our site was from a poster on our site -- not one of the guys that write for our site. Big Difference (IMO).
April 12th, 2011 at 11:19 PM ^
April 12th, 2011 at 11:10 PM ^
It's just one practice and we shouldn't read too much into it. Sound advice.